A new collection of Victor Canning short stories which I have edited, including the superb 'Minerva Club' group, has now been released by the US publishers Crippen and Landru. Follow this link to the publishers' site.
A few of Canning's middle-period books are in print in large-print editions, intended mainly for libraries.
Three more short story collections, Crime and Detection, Italy and the Balkans and The Exotics, are planned. Please email me, marlodge1-at-tiscali.co.uk, for details (change -at- to @ when mailing).
The following is a tally of the number of copies of Victor Canning's books offered for sale by dealers on the ABE network on 15th May 2007/4 May 2008/11 May 2009. This will give an idea of the relative scarcity of different titles, though this will vary quite a bit over time. The total returned by a search for "Victor Canning" was 4666/4623/4400 on those days, but that includes translations and a small number of other books written by joint authors whose names include "Victor" and "Canning". My informal checks suggest that dealers are adding around ten books of Canning a day to their listings, which implies that about ten a day on average are being sold since the total stays around the same. The totals for Castle Minerva, The Hidden Face, A Delivery of Furies, The Python Project and The Melting Man are inflated as these books also appeared in omnibus editions and so include some double or triple counting.
(Where a book was sold under a different title in the USA, both figures are given. Otherwise British and American editions are amalgamated. I have generally excluded translations.)
Mr Finchley discovers his England (17/19/16) US-Mr Finchley's holiday (1/1/0)
18/20/20
The dragon tree (89/83/83) US-Captives of Mora Island (11/10/7)
100/93/90
The Satan sampler
101/84/87
Polycarp’s progress
9/10/8
The burning eye
48/46/51
Fall from grace
85/84/77
Fly away Paul
1/1/0
A delivery of Furies
151/150/158
Boy on platform one (4/4/6) US-Memory boy (45/37/37)
49/41/43
Matthew Silverman
3/3/5
Black flamingo
84/76/79
Vanishing point
80/70/72
Mr Finchley goes to Paris
1/2/4
The limbo line
162/169/160
Raven’s wind
48/58/46
Fountain Inn
1/1/3
The Scorpio letters
121/131/140
Birds of a feather
67/67/57
Mr Finchley takes the road
0/1/0
The whip hand
193/179/185
Table number seven
15/23/21
Green battlefield
4/5/4
Doubled in diamonds
83/64/67
Young man on a bicycle
6/6/5
The chasm
102/106/90
The python project
164/142/144
Delay on Turtle
3/2/7
Panther’s moon
169/164/148
The melting man
146/144/153
The runaways
80/70/72
The golden salamander
108/124/112
Queen’s pawn
116/118/91
Flight of the grey goose
61/69/59
A forest of eyes
48/52/49
The great affair
77/70/68
The painted tent
27/23/28
Venetian bird (43/48/44) Bird of Prey (90/99/91)
133/147/135
Firecrest
94/92/79
Smiler trilogy
3/7/10
House of the seven flies
164/172/162
The Rainbird pattern
119/117/103
The crimson chalice (including trilogy)
94/100/90
Man from the Turkish Slave
51/49/53
Finger of Saturn
194/183/194
Circle of the gods
28/29/29
Castle Minerva (88/86/95) US-A handful of silver (63/56/61)
151/142/156
The mask of memory
180/174/163
The immortal wound
14/7/13
His Bones are coral (8/6/7) US-Twist of the knife (16/15/15) & The shark run (6/6/5)
30/27/27
The Kingsford mark
119/131/102
Everyman’s England
4/4/2
The hidden face (61/51/72) US-Burden of proof (45/48/39)
106/99/111
The doomsday carrier
133/127/123
The Manasco Road (74/76/80) US-The forbidden road (8/7/8)
82/83/88
Birdcage
80/61/74
There were no copies offered of any of the 'Alan Gould' or 'Julian Forest' books. Indeed there have been none for several years.
Information compiled by John Higgins, 24 August, 2009.
Mr. Finchley discovers his England—£11.45